The Partisan Press

Have we really changed?

To answer this question, we first have to dive in deeper into what the Partisan Press is, in this article we are able to learn more about the partisan press and what it was like back in this era. The Partisan Press helped individuals get things done, what I mean by this is that the articles were written to help get the author's point across, it was biased. It was based on their views and agendas. This is a brilliant idea because you can get people to understand your perspective and see why you view certain things the way you do, but the downside of all of this, one could say is that people weren’t getting accurate information. What they received and were reading were opinions not facts. I feel that this was a bad era for journalism because things weren’t true and honest. Although it was a time where you can express what had to be said about the given topics, it harmed the communities overall because they were stuck with what they were given. 

  Even though this was not the best possible way to deliver news, I think that it couldn't have been better or worse, because during this period we were still getting started and everyone was just trying to do what they thought was best for them.

In the 21^st century, we are seeing the partisan press all over again, why? You might be asking yourself. News sources aren’t “directly affiliated” with a political party but they are very much still biased and are not subtle about it at all. Despite the fact that there is actual accurate information now, we still see news sources picking and choosing what they want the audience to see. The wording of articles and how they depict certain issues or when they decide to give the audience certain news very much shows on which side of the spectrum they stand on. CNN and FOX are major news channels who are known for picking sides. 

Something interesting that I have also found is that Americans receive news on the internet based on their searches and what they like. There is an article that shows that if a republican and a democrat both typed in the same topic for instance “Donald Trump” the same articles would not pop up because the search goes off of what you would like to see, which in return does not give the other side an accurate representation of the search. This makes it harder for people to comprehend the opposing views and therefore, they only know half the story not the full picture. 

So, on top of not having many unbiased news sources, we also have to deal with what we are given when we do research. I think that this will never change because The Partisan Press era happened over 200 years ago, yet we still see parallels from then and now.  I think that the difference between us now, is that we do have proper tools like the internet to do more research to find the truth hidden behind biased articles.

https://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/2011/04/20/the-fall-and-rise-of-partisan-journalism/